"Little Red" from Dreamgirl
By Ed Avis
Kids getting ready for trick-or-treating or Halloween parades are of course a giant market for your costume shop, but let’s be honest -- adults buy a lot of costumes, too, and in many cases they want their costume to be flattering or downright sexy. And for some costume businesses, the sale of sensual wear goes beyond costumes and includes lingerie, corsets, and such.
Here are six tips to boost your adult costume sales:
1) Remember that “sexy” means different things to different people. Gorgeous models dressed in skimpy cheerleader outfits might be the cliché image of adult costumes, but not everybody wants that look or can pull it off successfully. To truly serve the adult sensual costume market, consider stocking a wide range of flattering wear. For example, Make Believe Costumes & Dancewear in St. Augustine, Florida sells a lot of hippy outfits to customers who want to look good without being overtly sexy, says Julie Gump, the store’s owner. Other costumes in that category, depending on how tight or skimpy they are, could be uniforms, Egyptian clothing, and pirate outfits.
2) Match your “raunchiness” level to your community. Adult costumes – and lingerie, if you extend your adult line to that level – exist on a spectrum of sexiness. If you serve a customer base that is comfortable with a high level of sensuality, you will probably sell a lot of costumes and clothing on the top of that spectrum. But if you are concerned about offending community members by being too raunchy, you should probably avoid the overtly trashy outfits and those that might push the envelope of propriety. “We don’t sell the sexy Girl Scout stuff or the school girl uniforms,” Gump says. “I’ve never carried those little trashy things.”
3) Make a tasteful display. When Illusive Skull Costume Castle in Fairmont, West Virginia decided to expand their line of corsets, bustiers, garter belts and sexy stockings, they created an area called the “Baby Got Curves Boutique” based around a beautiful old oak display case. “We filled the case with corsets by sizes and on the wall behind it we hung specific corsets, such as for Valentine’s Day, and tons of stockings,” says Pam Markel, the store’s co-owner. “And we decorated the top of the counter with small decorative suitcases, like you were going away for the weekend. We also had vases of flowers and old perfume bottles.” Markel says they completed the classy look with pink chiffon draped around the space. At Make Believe Costumes, Gump says she uses her store’s mannequins to exhibit some of the adult costumes. She even has one “large busted” mannequin that shows off the potential of certain wear, though she says regular mannequins work just as well.
4) Stock plus sizes. People come in all sizes, and they all want to be flattered when wearing adult costumes. That means you should be stocking plenty of plus-size adult costumes. “All women want to look good at Halloween,” says Dani Fitzgerald, CEO of Starline LA, which has a line of sexy costumes that go up to 5X. “They want to look cute or sexy, and they deserve that. Our plus-size costumes give them that opportunity.” Fitzgerald says her company’s sales of plus-size costumes have more than doubled in the past year, testimony to the importance of stocking them in your store. Fitzgerald adds that plus-size costumes don’t need to look any less attractive than regular size costumes. “We found that redesign is not necessary in most cases,” she says. “For example, our bodysuits in the plus sizes are still form fitting and highlight a woman’s curves. Keeping our regular styling in the larger sizes has been very successful for us.”
5) Don’t forget the men. The focus of adult costumes is often women, but men want to look attractive, too. “For guys, King of Egypt, hippy, disco and definitely pirate stuff sells well,” Gump says. Other flattering men’s costumes include rock star, caveman, construction worker, Hugh Hefner, astronaut and police officer. If your store serves the LGBTQ community, the range of sensual men’s costumes greatly expands. Another option when stocking your adult section is costumes that come in pairs, one for the woman and one for the man. Examples of costumes in that category are Egyptian King and Cleopatra; cowboy and barmaid; Hugh Hefner and Playboy Bunny; Batman and Catwoman; and pirate and wench.
6) Finally, don’t forget to include your adult line in your marketing, including the fact that you carry plus sizes and men’s costumes. Customers might assume you specialize in kids’ costumes, since that’s what first comes to mind when most people think of a costume shop. By showing off some adult wear in your social media posts, website and other promotions, you might discover a new category of customers altogether.
Adult costumes can add significantly to your bottom line, but you have to stock the right costumes, display them well, and let costumers know you have them.